(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a safety icon and a combination integrating the safety icon and other technological elements into a Portable Area Safety Zoning system (PASZ) to create a variety of safe zones for military, police, and civilian uses.
(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Icons, i.e., entities whose form suggests its meaning, have been used for centuries. In today's computer age, most people associate icons with pictures, mainly the graphic symbols on a computer display screen that suggests the associated function, e.g., a pictorial depiction of a trash can for disposing of files. The concept of an icon, however, also includes objects, e.g., the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Rushmore. For the purpose of this invention, a safety icon is an object which is instantly recognizable as a device which promotes safety. The focus of this invention comprises safety icons which set apart one area from another, usually a secured zone from an unrestricted zone for pedestrian, automobile, or aircraft traffic. The sample icon in the description of the invention comprises a variation of a traffic safety cone, but the scope of the invention disclosed and claimed is not limited to the specific physical form of the cone disclosed.
Traffic safety icons have come in many recognizable forms, including posts (U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,109), barrels (U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,788), pylons (U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,343), cones (U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,068), and signalling devices uniquely designed for a particular purpose (U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,070). (The patents listed in parentheses are representative of the types of safety icons mentioned; see the patents cited of record for a more comprehensive list.) By and large, each of them have limited usages and permit of only minor variations.
The manner of using the safety icons includes those which may stand alone (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,262, 5,722,788, 6,556,147, and 5,529,429) or are permanently joined together (U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,499). Most safety icons, however, are temporarily attached to an adjacent icon by solid or flexible barriers (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,501,429, 5,030,029, 6,053,657, and 6,386,135). The icons of interest in this category are portable and typically arranged to delineate an open or closed perimeter (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,770,495, 5,501,429, 5,030,029, and 7,030,777). Those that are permanently connected to each other are difficult to store and transport, and those temporarily attached to an adjacent icon, again, lack sufficient versatility to justify being carried by military or civilian units having limited space and/or weight restrictions.
Of particular relevance to the disclosed invention are systems which utilize portable safety icons to control or monitor traffic (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,515,499, 5,501,429, 6,559,774, and 7,030,777), to set up temporary landing sites for helicopters or airplanes (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,862,164, 6,069,557, 6,174,070, 6,193,190, and 6,509,844), and to cordon off selected areas (U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,495). While all of these are suitable and effective for the functions for which they were designed, a study of their structures and operational requirements will make it immediately apparent that cross-over from one use to another is quite impractical if not impossible.